Page 108 of Gunslinger Girl
Leave and go where? She thought of Selene’s eyes, laced with anger, and heard her orders. Selene was willing to serve up both Pity and Max to achieve her ends. She’s no friend of yours. Not anymore.
And maybe Sheridan wasn’t either, but she saw no other choice.
“Yes,” she said. Then again, louder: “Yes, you can trust me.”
“Good. You may be a terrible liar, but you’re no fool.” One hand rubbed his temple as he sighed. “Your ‘Max’? His real name is Edwin Khristos Maximillian Pryce.” Sheridan paused. “And he is the one and only child of Alanna Drakos and Jonathan Pryce.”
CHAPTER 36
Pity sat as her vision narrowed, the edges turning dim.
Max… How was it possible? Drakos-Pryce was more than a powerful corporation. It was an empire. How had Max managed to elude that for so long?
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” said Sheridan. “Facts, figures, and faces—those are my talents. I never forget them, though years and the dye and piercings did a good job of obscuring his features.” He registered her confusion. “In all my time in Columbia, Drakos-Pryce might have never turned their eyes toward me, but, oh, I watched them. The deals they made. Who they talked to at parties and who they didn’t. And even the skinny, bored little boy they ignored more often than not.”
“He said he hated the parties.” The words trickled out of her as she fought to process her bewilderment. One thing was clear, though: the payment Sheridan had offered up in return for the corporation’s endorsement.
“For years he was assumed to be abroad—hidden away until he was old enough to join his parents’ business. I should thank you. If not for your debut, I might never have noticed him that evening in the Gallery.” He leaned toward her. “Pity, where is he?”
A sour taste filled her mouth. “Locked up, where no one can get to him. Selene won’t let him go unless I go with you.”
“And…?”
“And kill you.”
“Ah.” Sheridan was silent for a moment. “What happens to Max if you don’t?”
Again, Pity’s eyes fell to the scarlet stain. “She’ll tell everyone that he was working with Daneko, put him in a Finale, and make me kill him. And when I refuse to do that…”
“Yes, I understand.” Sheridan’s tone turned jarringly light. “Well, since I’d rather not be killed, and you would rather not kill Max, I think we are both on the same side.”
Were they? “It’s too late. You need Max, and he’s in Selene’s hands.”
“But she doesn’t know what she has.” He paused, pensive again. “Or what is happening around her.”
She looked up. “What do you mean?”
“Pity, what if I told you that Selene’s plans no longer matter?”
A new kind of dread ignited in her belly. The territory they were traversing had changed suddenly. “I-I don’t…”
“Selene isn’t as universally beloved as you might think. And she’s a fool if she thinks anyone would believe Max an accessory to her assassination attempt. Even if I didn’t know he was the prince of a cutthroat corporation, I never would have tried to acquire his assistance.”
At first she thought she misheard. “But it was Daneko who—” She stopped. The help in the east. “Oh, Lord, it wasn’t Daneko who tried to kill Selene. It was you.”
“Oh, Daneko was involved,” Sheridan said. “But as my cat’s-paw. He was more than willing to sell Selene out if it meant he’d take over the city, even if only as my proxy.” He chuckled. “It was a bit ambitious—I see that now. But how could I have known that my plan would fail simply because Serendipity Jones came to breakfast?”
Pity stood, freezing in place when she realized she didn’t know what she was doing. More than trust, this was a confession. Sheridan had tried to murder Selene.
Sheridan, not Daneko.
Her thoughts cast back to that morning. To the assassins who had offered to take them alive and Sheridan’s words before the final rally: You don’t need to do this. At the time, she’d heard it as the sentiment of a man believing surrender would save his life. Now she realized he’d never been in danger to begin with.
Be careful, she thought. Be very careful. “Why? Why would you do all this?”
“I told you: Cessation is the power in the west,” Sheridan said. “Like Columbia is in the east. Together they form a conduit through which authority over the entire continent flows. Selene is partially right in her machinations. I want Cessation… though not with her.”
